"I like a good story, well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself." - Mark Twain

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Flick Pick: Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever(United Artists, 1971)Induced both by a dearth of other roles, and UA's then-record $1 1/4M salary offer, Sean Connery was dragged back to playing 007 one more time in this one. It was a much lighter take on the role, coupled with Connery having gotten notably heavier.It was also, due to legal wrangling, the last time Blofeld and SPECTRE make an appearance, and until they do, it's a more mundane cops and robbers sort of case, although the locations and beauties keep up the Bond standard.Long-time recluse Howard Hughes is somewhat parodied in the film, but in actuality was friends with one of the producers, Jimmy Dean playing him was working for Hughes in Vegas at the time, and Hughes' used his influence to get streets closed in Vegas for the car chase scenes, which were decently done (although even MAD Magazine joked that the two-wheel Mustang stunt owed more to Connery's added weight than 007's driving skill), and the oil rig lair attack was fairly involved and rather spectacular.This one was a bridge from the more serious early Bond flicks to a decidedly lighter side in subsequent ones.

My Blog List

About the Blog List

Not counting the news outlets or websites along the full range of accuracy and veracity, I follow 10 or so actual individuals' handwritten blogs. Looking them over, 8 of the 10 are current serving or former military and 4 of those 8 are some variation of high-speed low-drag elite forces ninjas. And 2 are cops.So in other words, the same folks I trusted in the military not to wet the bed, sh*t themselves, or otherwise run around like headless Nancys, are the same folks I trust on the interwebz, for demonstrating pretty much the same trustworthiness and circumspectly responsible behavior.Color me shocked.

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Comments are appreciated. They require neither prior ID nor screening for content. Anonymous abusive or rude comments will be either mocked mercilessly, or simply deleted into the internet ether, solely at the blog owner's discretion. (That would be me.) If you somehow labor under the misapprehension that free speech applies everywhere, try this experiment: go to your next door neighbor's house, urinate and defecate on his living room floor, and call him a m*****f****** @$$hole, then see whether you receive an award from the ACLU, or an ambulance and police car, who stop momentarily to help collect your teeth. If you don't get this, you're too stupid to be on the Internet, let alone posting comments on my blog. Disagreement is one thing, even ignorance can be understandable, but rude @$$holery will not be tolerated here. I have neither the time nor inclination to imbue what a public K-12 failed to instill in those folks bereft of the ability to reason intelligently or behave like well-adapted human beings in polite society.That's why for you there's a Skid Row.